The Unalaska City High School Native Youth Olympics (NYO) Team capped off an excellent season by being honored by the City Council during Tuesday’s meeting.
The NYO season started back in March with over 30 high schoolers joining the team. Athletes have a choice of ten different events. Although NYO is an individual sport in many ways, passing your skills down to younger or less experienced NYO athletes and helping your teammates is very important.
The NYO team competed in the state NYO Games last month from April 27th-29th. The team did extremely well. Kaye Gumera won Female Athlete of the Games with a gold medal in Kneel Jump, a silver medal in Wrist Carry, a silver medal in Scissor Broad Jump, fourth place in One Foot High Kick, and fifth place in One Arm Reach. It is truly amazing to see someone that excels in so many events. Kalista Decker and Bridget Savage competed in the Indian Stick Pull and Eskimo Stick Pull respectively. They did not place, but they did great considering it was their first time at the state competition.
The boys’ team also did very well, with every athlete medaling in at least one event. Trevor Wilson received
the silver medal in Two Foot High Kick, Brian Conwell the silver medal in One Arm Reach, John Villena the bronze medal in Scissor Broad Jump, Daniel Peters the bronze medal in Kneel Jump, Connor McCracken the bronze medal in Wrist Carry, Matthew Faoasau the bronze medal in Eskimo Stick Pull, FaizarCayron the bronze medal in Indian Stick Pull, and Carter Price fifth place in the One Foot High Kick. It is rare to find a team that is so well rounded.
The team scores are calculated by taking a medal count. For example, a gold medal will give your team 5 points, a silver medal 4 points, and so on. The NYO team has done the community proud again, getting the runner up overall, bringing a banner back to Unalaska. Great job Raider NYO!
